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A Correction on the Swiss Politician Who Became Muslim

World Press - World Press

Written by Muslim Link Staff

Friday, 26 February 2010 11:21

In our last issue we printed a story about a Swiss politician who became a Muslim (“Swiss Anti-Minaret Campaigner Embraces Islam”, February 5, 2010). Unfortunately, the story had some embellished untruths.

As clarified by a follow-up article by Jason Hamza van Boom, the reporter who originally broke the story last December, Swiss politician Daniel Streich was in fact a member of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, but he was not involved in the party’s efforts to ban minarets. Streich actually became Muslim a few years ago, but only announced it recently, leading some drama-driven writers to falsely claim Streich was a major player in the party, and on the front-lines of the anti-minaret campaign. Both are untrue. Streich denounced the anti-minaret campaign as a “witch-hunt” according to van Boom. Another fallacy in the news item was Streich’s vow to build the most beautiful masjid in Europe. No such vow was made. To read van Boom’s full article, visit www.illumemag.com. We apologize to our readers for printing the embellished news item. -- TML